The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.
With Illustrations by Phiz.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1839 Stock Code: 147836
First edition, bound from the original monthly parts as published from April 1838 to October 1839, with the stab-holes visible; handsomely bound.
Dickens had been catapulted to fame with the success of The Pickwick Papers, and to secure his next novel Chapman and Hall offered Dickens 150 a part, a sum ten times greater than that which he had received for Pickwick. It met with great public enthusiasm, which has continued unabated: Dickens's biographer Ackroyd stated that the novel "has some title to being the funniest novel Dickens ever wrote; it is perhaps the funniest novel in the English language" (Peter Ackroyd, Dickens, pp. 262). This copy has the early state "latter" for "letter" on p. 160, and the later state "sister" rather than "visiter" on p. 123.
Description
Octavo (209 x 129 mm). Late 19th-century tree calf by Mansell, twin red and brown morocco labels, spine gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, gilt edges.
Illustrations
Engraved portrait frontispiece, 39 engraved plates by Phiz. With the front wrapper of the original part V bound at front.
Condition
Joints and extremities neatly restored, plates browned as often. A very good copy.
Bibliography
Eckel pp. 64-5; Kremers pp. 74-9; Smith 5.
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